Will Google Wave Eliminate the Need for PR as Media Relations?

New media has already reminded up that PR stands for public relations and not just media relations. This is still something that many organizations are navigating at the moment. Now Google is giving us yet another Wave of innovation and showing us what is possible in the browser. It was developed by the team that gave us Google Maps. From the site:

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared.
Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and
add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone
rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live.
With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have
faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in
real-time.

Note that Wave is an open protocol that will allow third party developers to make their own Wave servers - just like they did with email. What seems nice about it is that it treats media as a process, where truth could emerge from many voices and forms. Is this going to spell the age of news in the cloud?

I was reading a post by Jeff Jarvis on the possibilities of Wave and news and noticing how resistant to proposed changes people are in the discussion that ensued in the comments. We don't have to like it, we can however admit that things are and have changed. As a reminder, I encourage critics to propose an alternative, to build it, to champion it. It's way too easy to just say "I don't like it," and "you suck".

Rather than resisting to the idea that this is happening, I'd like to think with you about the opportunities - and changes - that such a tool brings to the fore. When media becomes fluid this way, does the public relations profession need a digital tune up?

Where will the public relations professional and publicist fit in? Is it time for the transition to true communicator and conversation agents vs. merely passing along information, in some cases pushing it onto people who do not want your news? Will press announcements be streamed real time through the wave? What will be the long term changes?

the content - what value components will allow your publics to derive self-worth and interest?

the multimedia - this goes way beyond the social media release to access and potential community involvement

the conversation - what's the story from the point of view of the community?

the social aspect - this is where the information generates engagement

Would we use other software with the Wave? What kind of changes will this bring to the ability of small businesses to compete with larger ones? Will Google Wave eliminate the need for PR as media relations? How about listening tools? You should be thinking about the implications. Wherever there are changes, there is opportunity.

Comments

@Melissa - we're seeing that a little on Twitter, editors and writers are opening a direct dialogue with readers. What if they can see what readers respond to in real time? We'll probably see more direct involvement. Which is interesting because Shannon also thought that I meant for PR to be out of the equation.

@Shannon - what if it's the community involvement to create interest in a PR pitch instead of the direct relationship with editors and journalists? Which may mean that PR professionals would begin to be more content curators and conversation facilitators for the public at large vs. just the media group. The new mechanism of the wave and of course the fact that there will be fewer of today's accepted/pitched news media publications around...

How is Google Wave going to compete with a press release? Is it not better to begin with a condensed, formal, standard base of information and then let the discussion begin?

Real public relations has always been about being a true communicator and facilitating conversation--much more than just "information passing". It takes time, energy, and an understanding of what legit media need to prepare the best materials. Google Wave won't be doing that on its own. Like blogging, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., it will be just another tool for the trade.

While I haven't seen or used the Wave, from a Media standpoint, I'm not sure how this would be used. It will be interesting to see if consumers are interested in getting involved in reading PR from companies directly rather than through the filter of a news or magazine company.